Oxygen depletion likely killed thousands of fish in the Shark River

Thousands of fish wash up

12:30 AM,
May 14, 2014

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Possibly tens of thousands of fish - most of them bunker or menhaden - have died in the Shark River, and oxygen depletion is the likely cause, officials said.

"This is highly unusual," Mayor Matt Doherty said. "It's alarming, but we want to wait until we get the full test results to really look at what caused this."

Michael A. Meddis, public health coordinator in the Monmouth County Health Department, said the most likely cause is that the fish themselves depleted the water of oxygen. Bunker "reproduce in large numbers, and typically they use up a lot of oxygen," and most fish kills are due to ...